Another miscreant in our heroic party. Text by Anni N. Permanent page for Ms. Brauer is here.
Marleene replaces poor Walburga, who lost an arm and burned to death in a Bögenhafen warehouse.
---
Marleene was bored.
But then again, hadn't she
always been? Boring childhood in the boring part of the city. Parents
and their tedious work brewing potions and selling concoctions that never did work. Living on the borderline of decency and being poor.
Marleene was supposed to learn the family trade of alchemy as well, but she wasn't too keen on studying. She would rather sneak out and roam the streets of Altdorf.
She was quick to learn how to adopt a convincing demeanor and what it meant - that
making people believe you knew something was just as important as
actually, truly knowing. She was also quick to scatter, to retreat to the
shadows.
When her parents died,
she wasn't too sad. Master Hieronymos, friend of theirs, had already
promised to take her in as an apprentice. But she had to leave Altdorf and
move to Delberz, and she couldn't possibly think of a place more dull.
And now she actually had to work. Oh the tedious hours looking for
herbs and grinding incredients. But at least Hieronymos sold potions that
really worked, and was fairly prosperous.
He didn't hesitate to send Marleene
to do chores in Delberz and other nearby cities - if you could call them
cities. Still, Marleene had her fair share of freedom. Hieronymos didn't ask
where she had been when she was late, and she was late often. He didn't
ask if a few gold coins were missing and thus Marleene never pilfered
too much.
He had sent Marleene to Bögenhafen
to get some herbs. Yes, there was the summer festival and Marleene
managed to see a three-legged goblin without paying... But still. Rather
boring. So she decided to have a few beers. And then more. And then
some.
Morning came, she woke up, not having
the faintest idea where she was. A boat maybe? And why was there a pile
of post on the floor? Well, it could be something interesting!
Another one in our series of meet the party, here's Günther! Text by Mikko K, permanent page for the character can be found here.
Günther Konrad
Born at the village of Schlafebild, near Altdorf, Günther was the last of four sons. He was also the only one who never met his father, seeing as old Horst died in a fishing accident the day before Günther was born. Maybe the family thought that his birth was an ill omen, but as soon as they found out that Günther would always be a puny lad, they shipped him off to learn his letters and numbers and other useless things.
It is remotely possible that they thought an educated boy would be helpful to the family business. But their business was fishing, so Günther himself always believed they just wanted to get rid of anyone who wasn’t fit for physical labor. Where the money for his education came, he has no idea. In any case, things happened, shit as well, and Günther discovered he was pretty good with those numbers, his hair had turned prematurely grey, and he was now employed by the local government as an exciseman.
A sobering thought, you’d think, but no. Our Günther liked his alcohol. The only reason he didn’t embezzle some funds was because he didn’t know his supervisors were much less mathematically talented. They wouldn’t have noticed any creative bookkeeping! When Günther did realize this, he went on an extended drinking tour a ways off from Altdorf, which ended when his employment and his savings were both terminated.
The first session of the campaign started with our three characters just outside "Coach and Horses", a coaching inn on the Delberz-Altdorf road. Holger and Günther had been traveling together for a while, disillusioned with their lot in life and looking for something new and profitable. Grimgrim the (grumpy) dwarf just happened to be traveling in the same general direction.
The fact that we started our first proper session with only 3 out of 4 players present was due to real-life scheduling issues. And I knew that adding Errindel the Seer to the party would not be an issue: his visions would eventually guide him to the right place at the right time. Gotta love seers.
Seeking shelter from the rain, the characters entered the coaching inn. While there, they noticed a job offer: Crown Prince Hergard von Tasseninck was looking for bold adventurers (but not dwarves- eliciting a profound "meh" from Grimgrim the Dwarf). Altdorf was not that far away...
Smoothly, the characters interacted with the other patrons at the inn. Or actually, they mostly invested their remaining coins on some food and beer, and a warm place to sleep. It looked to be an early night in. Not that the other patrons were exactly looking for company: Lady Isolde von Strudeldorf looked down her nose at the rabble, a student was preparing for his physician's test in Altdorf, and two coachmen were getting uproariosly drunk.
There was a Rainman-esque moment when a Bretonnian gambler named Philippe Descartes challenged the characters to a friendly game of cards. Günther, the supernumerate former exciseman, gladly took the poor gambler's money.
For the next morning, the characters arranged a coach ride onward to Altdorf. The hungover coachmen caused a delay, and when it was finally time to leave, it became apparent that there was no room in the coach itself (also, lady von Strudeldorf does not travel with common folk, thank you very much!). The characters traveled on the roof of the coach, miserable in the rain (except for Grimgrim, who was busy going through lady von Strudeldorf's luggage).
A couple of hours later, the journey was interrupted. Squatting by the side of the road there was a human figure, his back to the coach, bent over the body of a Four Seasons coachman. The figure turned around, and to their horror the adventurers saw a severed human hand hanging out of the the creature's mouth. The thing was human, but abhorrent to behold - it's flesh was hanging in shreds and green ichor seeped from it's eyes.
Walburga was especially shocked, for she knew the mutant. It had once been a fellow militiaman named Rolf, who had suffered from a strange skin condition. Now not much remained of the man she once knew.
Rolf the mutant rushed towards the coach slashing with it's bloody dagger. The horses panicked and bolted, snapping the reins as they did so. One of the coachmen was pulled off the coach and dragged across the ground. The coach came to an abrupt halt, and the mutant attacked!
The mutant was quickly dispatched. One mutant against both Walburga and Grimgrim was a lopsided fight to begin with. From further around the corner, a bestial cry could be heard. The characters went out to investigate.
Another coach was lying across the road, with two horses desperately trying to struggle free. Four more mutants were at the scene. One was hacking at the horses maniacally with an axe, another with cloven feet was feasting on the body of a small child, and a human with a dog-like head was screaming and holding it's leg while another mutant with a pointed head was trying to bandage said leg.
The characters managed to surprise the mutants, and a melee ensued. Another mutant was behind the coach, and started firing at the characters with a crossbow, but after the characters took down two of the mutants, it ran off into the woods.
The fight was short and bloody, but our adventuring heroes did not suffer any major injuries. After the mutants had been taken care of, the characters found a body lying nearby. Shockingly, the corpse looked exactly like Günther! After searching the body, the characters found a letter.
The body belonged to one Kastor Lieberung, and apparently he was the sole heir to a faraway baronet, and
entitled to the sum of 20000 Gold Crowns. Did I mention that he looked
exactly like our hero Günther Konrad?
Suddenly and unexpectedly, Grimgrim, always a dwarf of action, smashed the real Herr Lieberung's head right in! This was easily the most violent moment of the session, shocking everybody, including Surkis.
Shock, horror, meh.
Lieberung's body was quickly dumped wayside and covered with leaves. The party continued onwards to the Empire's capital, Altdorf. Just after dark, the coach arrived at the capital's main square, the Königsplatz.
In the hustle and bustle of the Königsplatz, a peculiar thing happened. Günther was approached by two men. While one of them watched the crowd, the other scratched his left ear with the little finger of his right hand, all the while staring hard at Günther. This was repeated a number of times, leaving Günther rather befuddled. After a while, the two men looked relieved, and hurried over to a nearby doorway, where a stocky man was standing. All three went through the doorway and closed the door behind them. At the Königsplatz, three characters were left to wonder what the hell was that all about. After that, the adventurers found an inn, and settled in for the night.
The following day the party discovered that Prince von Tasseninck
had already departed for the Grey Mountains. Not that it mattered much,
Günther et al had bigger fish to fry.
On the streets of Altdorf, the characters by chance happened to meet one Josef Quartjin, a friend of Grimgrim's. This chance encounter led to a few drinks at a nearby tavern, which led to a few drinks in the next one, and so on... After a few drinks, Josef also offered the characters a job: he needed guards/stevedores for his boat on his trip to Bögenhafen. The party was going to go there anyway to meet the lawyers ("Lock, Stöck & Bärl") who sent the letter to the original Lieberung, so they quickly said yes.
While drinking away the night, a tall, gaunt character all dressed in black arrived at the same establisment as the characters. This was one Max Ernst, a moody bastard looking for a fight. Josef knew the guy, and told that it would be best to stay clear of him.
After a while, two young nobles also arrived, and started a drinking competition. The competition ended with one of them throwing up on on Günther. The nobles found this riotously funny. Seething, the characters tried to stay calm - attacking a bunch of nobles and their bodyguards could get very ugly very quickly.
At this point, Max Ernst started to insult the characters in earnest. Günther and Walburga were rightly incensed, and things got physical. Josef and Grimgrim watched from the sidelines as Ernst embarrassed the two heroes: both suffered minor injuries to go with the ignominy of defeat. Ernst left the bar after the brief scuffle, leaving Günther and Walburga to collect themselves from the floor of the tavern. Günther plotted vengeance ("Once I get my 20000 GCs, that bastard will pay!"). The nobles also departed, laughing loudly.
After the fight, the characters and Josef headed for Josef's barge. Along the way, the characters became aware that they were being followed. Grimgrim, the least drunk member of the party, decided to hang back and hide in an alleyway, while the rest of our heroes continued onwards to the boat.
Grimgrim saw that two men were following the characters, and recognized them as the weird double act from the Königsplatz. Lying in wait, Grimgrim also saw them taken down: one of them fell down as a crossbow bolt slammed into his back, and when the other one turned to look back, another bolt struck, aimed straight at the man's throat. Whoever shot the bolts vanished into the darkness.
Grimgrim looted the bodies, as is his m.o., and while doing so, noticed a small tattoo on both of the two men, located on the right breast. The tattoo depicted a purple hand.
With the adventurers arriving at Josef's barge, the session ended. Next up: trip to Bögenhafen.
Meet Errindel, the elven seer of the party. Text by Mari T. Permanent page for the character is here.
Errindel Elmarillion
Born deep in the elven woods, Errindel was always a...
special child. That's what his mother told him, anyway. "Errindel, you
will be something great," she would say, "I just know it." She never
really specified what it was that made him so very unique, or what it
was that would make him great, but she kissed him often and told him not
to worry about how the other little elflings giggled when he walked by
with his mother's hand in his own. "You are mommy's special little boy,"
she would say, "don't you mind what anybody else says."
As Errindel grew up, he still believed his mother. It didn't matter what
anybody else said, he was special. He must have been, because he had
foreseen that time Old Gryndall fell off his tree branch and hurt his
foot, see, he had dreamed about a large frog on a twig that broke, and
why wouldn't they see that it was a sign? He hadn't really understood
what it meant until the old elf had limped back home, cursing about the
damned branch, but it all made sense now. Why didn't the others
understand?
The others never really understood. They never understood why Errindel
was so special, and they never understood why he kept telling them that
he was made for something great. As the other children grew up, they
stopped laughing and started rolling their eyes instead; nobody
understood. Errindel decided that his presence obviously made others
uncomfortable and nervous simply because they didn't understand.
Nobody understood.
Errindel
But Errindel knew! He knew he was meant for something better than this.
He was meant for something great, just like his mother had said.
Clearly, that something wasn't here in the elven woods, however. They
didn't exactly tell him to leave, no. He hadn't committed any crimes,
the law required that they welcome him to stay. But it was in their eyes
and in the tone of their voice when they asked him if he had seen
anything interesting lately, and besides, Errindel had always been
special, so he could read between the lines. There was no greatness for
him here, no grand future among these fools who did not recognise the
prophet that would one day save them all!
And so he left his home -- to search for his destiny among the humans
who were notorious for their lack of direction, and their need for
guidance. Soon after his arrival to the human realm, he knew that he had
made the right decision. Here, among the puny humans, an elf could feel
like a God among mortals. Yes, he was on the right path now!
He just needed to find the right sign to point him the way to this
elusive greatness that his mother had always talked about. The humans
were of little help; for some reason, they were less than eager to
acknowledge the fact which should have been immediately obvious --
Errindel Elmarillion would save them all!
